The inventor of the compact disc (CD), James Russell, will speak to students at Columbia Basin College, Monday, October 15, 10 a.m. in room V-134.

Russell began developing the CD in 1965 when he became frustrated with his vinyl records wearing out. He developed a method of recording onto a photosensitive platter in dots of light and dark which were converted by computer into an electronic signal and made audible or visual.

Russell was granted a total of 22 patents for various elements of his system. But, it was not until 1980 that Battelle, the company he worked for, first licensed his system. Although other companies made modifications to Russell's system to facilitate mass marketing, the basics of the CD in over 25 million American homes, and those applications used commercially, are Russell's original system.